


Life Is Like A Fairy Tale

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Rose's dimension cannon days, The Academy, Time Travel, Untempered Schism (Doctor Who), nonlinear meetings, technically it's like a one thousand year slow burn, the Doctor is a rebel and a thief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 13:43:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20640125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: "There was an excited look on the woman’s face, and the Doctor couldn’t help feeling almost as though he was being physically drawn closer to her. “Well, I’ve always wanted to see if they’ve got nice weather on Raxacoricofallapatorius,” she said conspiratorially.The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think, but couldn’t recall learning about such a place before. He had to tamp down the absurd reaction to just call out to her, and offer to take her there as long as she could provide directions. He didn’t even know her! Clearly the joys of graduating were making him act like an idiot. “You need a lift somewhere, miss?” he blurted out, and then immediately wanted to slap himself in the face."An overview of the Doctor's life, with one Rose Tyler along for the ride more than he could have ever imagined.





	Life Is Like A Fairy Tale

**Author's Note:**

> For the Doctor when he's 80 years old, just google a picture of young William Hartnell, and that's what I was imagining when I wrote that part.

He waited impatiently in the long line of other Gallifreyan children. Everyone in the line was just eight years old, and all of them were desperately hoping to hear the news that they were ready to begin their initiation. It was seen as a sign of great shame among the great Time Lord families for any of their children to take longer than a year to get through their first level at the Academy. He didn’t care much about honor or shame, but he was excited to move on to the next level. He couldn’t wait until the day he’d be allowed to take out a TARDIS on little trips so watch the universe. 

Next to him stood his best friend, who was looking around quite nervously. To comfort his friend, he reached out and grabbed the other boy’s hand, and gave it a tight squeeze. He didn’t let go even as their instructor walked by them, not caring about the fact that signs of affection shown outside of the household were seen as quite peculiar, if not outright inappropriate.

Their instructor, known to them only as the Danai, stopped in front of the two boys holding hands in the middle of the line. “What are you doing?” She sounded genuinely confused. 

His friend’s palm was sweaty, and he was clearly a bit frightened about what was to come for them, so he took it upon himself to be the one to speak. “We are prepared for initiation, Danai, but it is still the unknown to us, which makes it difficult to prepare for.”

The Danai laughed. “No one is ever ‘ready’ for initiation. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. However…” She trailed off as she looked back and forth between the two of them. “You have both excelled in your courses, and proven yourselves to be intelligent individuals.” Then she kept walking without another word, passing by the rest of the line before going to stand in front of all the stony-faced students. “The following students line up by the green door.” Then she read off a short list of names. Both he and his friend were on it, and they grinned at each other before hurrying over to take their place in the new line. 

The other students were sent away, and the ones who had been chosen to move on were guided away by a different instructor. None of them had seen the man before, but once the Danai was gone, he gave them an almost playful wink. “Don’t worry. None of you should be afraid. You would not have been chosen if you had not proved that you are ready to continue on your paths to becoming Time Lords and Ladies. Now please, follow me. And do try to keep up. I know I’m rather spry for someone of my age, but you youngins should have no trouble keeping pace.”

“How old are you?” one of the students dared to ask.

The instructor grinned. “I was waiting for someone to ask. It’s one of my favorite questions. Now, as I’m sure you’ve learned in your classes by now, if you spend too much time out of time, then you will lose track of your personal time. But, all that considered, I would say that I am somewhere around five-thousand years old. I am, however, on my last face, so if anything were to happen to me, then it would be five-thousand years into the matrix.”

The students all gasped, and the two best friends exchanged impressed looks. Of course they already knew that Time Lords had longer lifespans than the average Gallifreyan, but most of their parents were under one thousand years still. The idea of living for that long seemed so exciting. How much could he see and learn in that amount of time? 

Once they reached their destination, which was just a plush sitting room with enough seats for all twelve of the students, the instructor cleared his throat and gave them all a more serious look. He called the first name, and it was immediately apparent that they were not going by alphabetical order, or order of birthdate. It left the students something to think about while they waited for their turn.

It was almost an hour before the instructor returned for the next. But then it was only twenty minutes to the next one after that. The times seemed to wildly vary, and it was impossible to glean from the instructor’s face whether the others had passed their initiations or not. Whether they’d received the gift of many lives that were so exclusive to official Time Lords.

Soon he and his friend were the last two in the room. His friend was called before him, but he took the time to pull his friend into a close hug before sending him off with the instructor. Then he was left to sit there by himself. There was no one else left in the room to talk to, so he was left to sit there and kick his legs back and forth. He hoped that it wouldn’t be too long before it was his turn, because being stuck in this room all alone was no fun.

His time sense told him as the fourth hour passed, and he’d already been in to the small attached bathroom twice, mostly just to have something to do. He wondered if pacing around the room would be seen as a sign of nervousness, but then did it anyways, mostly because he just couldn’t bear to sit still for a moment longer. 

Just before the five hour mark passed by, the door finally opened again. As it did, he could hear the faint sound of screams, in a blood-chillingly familiar voice. “Can’t you hear them? Can’t you hear them?!” The screams faded, and he stared up at the instructor with wide eyes, unsure of what he should say.

For the first time all day, there was a sign on the instructor’s face, and it didn’t bode for anything good. He reached down to pat his shoulder once. “I’m sorry. But you still must go through with your initiation.”

He followed the instructor, whose name and title were still unknown, and he could feel the way that his entire body was shaking. What could the initiation possibly entail that it was so bad it had led his best friend to be dragged away screaming? What had happened? 

They stopped in front of an unassuming wooden door. “You must go in there by yourself, now. When you get in there, the only thing you need to do is look.”

He gulped. “How-” his voice broke, and he had to start again. “How do I know when it’s time to leave?” 

The instructor gave him a small smile, but it provided no comfort. “You just will, I promise. Now go on.”

He took a deep breath, and then pushed the wooden door open. Then it felt like all awareness of the world around him just melted away, as his eyes were filled with nothing but a brilliant golden light. It danced around the room, looping around him, and he breathed it in. The name for the light popped into his head, despite him having never heard it before. The untempered schism. He felt like he could see all of time and space, and he knew that it had driven his friend mad. 

But he didn’t feel insane from, only frightened. So much power, so much knowledge, how could anyone ever be allowed to know so much, to see so much? No wonder his friend had gone insane, if he’d been here for over four hours. He just couldn’t figure out how it was possible. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the tears that were slowly sliding down his cheeks. Then he turned and ran straight for the door, back out into the hallway. The instructor was waiting there. “You can open your eyes now,” he said in a gentle voice. “Do you know how long you were in there?”

He checked his time sense. “Three minutes and forty-two seconds,” he whispered. “Is that bad? Have I failed?” He forced himself to pry his eyes open again, and everything seemed shockingly dim after the blinding brightness of all of time.

The instructor gave him a long look. “Do you know where you just were?”

He nodded slowly. “The untempered schism.” 

“Then you have not done bad at all.” The instructor leaned over so that he could look him in the eyes. “There are three most common reactions to what you have just seen. Some are filled with great inspiration, some run away, and some… go mad. Which one of those sounds most like you?”

He gulped, not wanting to sound like a coward, but he already knew his answer. “I ran away.” If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure how it could ever be possible to stop running. Knowing that that light would always exist behind him, like some great big looming thing. “My friend- he went mad, didn’t he?”

There was a sad look on the instructor’s face. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

His head jerked up in alarm. “‘Loss’? Is he going to die?”

“No, no!” the instructor hurried to say. “No, he won’t die. But he will never be the same as the boy you’ve known for years. He has been irrevocably changed. Some are able to cope with the madness well enough to continue on with their education and live a full life. There is still hope. There is always hope, young Time Lord.”

At that last statement, he suddenly looked down at himself, eager to see any changes brought about by his initiation. To his disappointment, he looked exactly the same as he had before. He looked back up at the instructor. “I’m really a Time Lord now?”

The instructor smiled at him. “Well, there are still a few formalities to deal with, of course, but yes, you’re really a Time Lord now. You’ve been given the gifts of Time. Don’t go thinking that means you can just drop out of the Academy, though. Not unless you plan on staying on Gallifrey for the rest of your life. No one is allowed to go traveling around until they’ve officially graduated. What do you think? Are you going to stick with it?”

He thought of the sound of his friend’s miserable screams, and of the idea of having all of time and space at his disposal. Then he nodded eagerly. “Yes.” Once he was given permission to check out a TARDIS, he would travel to all kinds of places, and search for a way to cure his friend. And everything would be okay, because it had to be.

,,,

As he stood before the small crowd, he accepted the degree that certified him as an official Time Lord. He was just eighty years old, having excelled in his courses and continuously pushed his way forward in order to graduate two decades before the average Time Lord. The Danai arched one eyebrow as she looked at him. “I almost fear that I may regret asking,” she started softly enough that only he could hear it. Then she continued with the official lines. “What title have you chosen for yourself, graduate? What name is to be used by all so that the name gifted to you by the stars may be used only for the most important of moments?”

He closed his eyes for just a second as he took in a deep breath, then opened his eyes as he slowly let it out. He’d chosen his title long ago, even though he knew that his friend, who was just a few years away from graduation himself, would be unable to understand or appreciate it. “I am the Doctor,” he announced proudly to all who were gathered for the ceremony. “I will never be cruel or unjust, and I will strive to heal every hurt that I can. I will not give up on anyone. Ever.” He looked to see if his friend was in the crowd, but there were too many for him to be able to tell.

The Danai gave him a small smile, and he was pretty sure that it was the first time he’d ever seen that look on her face before. He wondered if it was painful for her to smile when it was something that she did so rarely. But even as he was grateful for the smile, he still waited with bated breath for her response. She had the power to reject his title, his name, his choice. Of course if she was going to, it should have been after he’d submitted his final paperwork for graduation, but she’d never been the kindest of ladies. She grabbed his hand, and turned so that they were both facing the crowd fully. “I present to you- the Doctor!” Then she wrapped a small piece of ribbon around his wrist. 

The crowd clapped politely, and the Doctor let out a sigh of relief. He’d really done it, then. He was free to explore the universe and see everything there was to see. He was free.

,,,

The Doctor slowly walked down the line of full-grown TARDIS’ to choose which one he would take onto his first outing. The man at the desk rolled his eyes. “They’re all the exact same. Just try not to get too used to the interior, eh? We’re in the middle of growing an upgraded batch right now, and they should be ready within the next couple hundred years.”

Despite what he’d just been told, the Doctor continued to inspect each machine carefully. Sure, they were all technically the same, but surely there had to be differences? He’d only ever been in a TARDIS once before, and it had seemed to absolutely hate him, and made him fail his driving test. Even now, he only had a provisional license, and wasn’t supposed to take off without a full panel of drivers- which would be six including himself. But it was so hard to think of five other people that he would want to explore the universe with. 

As he went about his search for the right TARDIS, he was vaguely aware of the desk guy saying something in a soft voice, clearly not directed at the Doctor. He didn’t pay much attention, until he heard the sound of a laugh that made him stop dead in his tracks. He wasn’t even sure what it was exactly, but something about that noise just sounded absolutely beautiful.

He turned around, and saw a woman standing with her hip up against the desk, and her arms were crossed loosely over her chest. She looked young even by Time Lord standards (though he wasn’t rude enough to look at her timeline to see her exact age), and she had a bright grin on her face. The desk guy had a pretty goofy look going on in response, not that the Doctor could fully blame the man. He took a few steps closer, suddenly curious about what they were saying.

“-can’t believe it. I always thought that Time Lords could do anything,” she was saying.

The desk guy shrugged one shoulder. “Well, within reason. Why?”

There was an excited look on the woman’s face, and the Doctor couldn’t help feeling almost as though he was being physically drawn closer to her. “Well, I’ve always wanted to see if they’ve got nice weather on Raxacoricofallapatorius,” she said conspiratorially. 

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think, but couldn’t recall learning about such a place before. He had to tamp down the absurd reaction to just call out to her, and offer to take her there as long as she could provide directions. He didn’t even know her! Clearly the joys of graduating were making him act like an idiot. “You need a lift somewhere, miss?” he blurted out, and then immediately wanted to slap himself in the face.

She looked over at him, and the Doctor felt like it was a miracle that he was able to continue standing upright when he saw the perfect shade of her golden-brown eyes, full of the spark of adventure that so many Gallifreyans seemed to lack. “You offering?” 

The desk guy looked quite annoyed that he’d lost the woman’s attention so quickly. The Doctor held back a smug grin. He knew that the face he’d been born with wasn’t an unattractive one, but he was often being told that his age showed quite clearly in his eyes, giving away that he was still so young.

Then again, the woman in front of him clearly wasn’t a Time Lord- all Gallifreyans were touch telepaths, but Time Lords had a unique way of feeling other Time Lords in their heads. So maybe she wouldn’t care that he had only just graduated, and pretty much had no idea what he was doing. “I’m the Doctor,” He could see the way that her eyes immediately sharpened, though he couldn’t figure out why. “and I was just choosing one of these lovely ships to take for a test drive.”

“Not without five other pilots,” the desk guy was quick to interject. The other Time Lord definitely fell more under the ‘conventionally attractive’ label than the Doctor did, so he was probably just as confused as the Doctor was about why this girl seemed to prefer him. 

The Doctor winced, knowing that he’d probably just blown his chances at- what, exactly? It’s not like he was about to pursue a relationship with some random Gallifreyan that he didn’t even know. For one thing, his family would never allow such a thing, and more importantly, he knew nothing about her at all. 

But instead of turning away from him, a mischievous gleam entered her eyes. She suddenly darted towards him and grabbed his hand. “Run!” Then she yanked him to the nearest TARDIS, and slammed the doors shut behind them before she looked over at him, eyes sparkling. “You can fly this thing, can’t you?”

The Doctor knew that he was going to be in so much trouble for this as it was, but if he just walked away right now and let the girl take the fall for her own craziness… he found himself hitting buttons and pulling levers before he could stop himself. “Guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” He got them into the vortex without too much of a production, then turned to look at the mysterious woman. “Who are you?”

She jammed her hands into her pockets, and suddenly she looked quite shy. “Oh, I’m no one important.”

The Doctor scoffed. “I find that hard to believe. I may not have actually seen much of the universe quite yet, but I doubt that there’s anyone who isn’t important.”

She rolled her eyes, though she did look mollified by his words. “I’m not going to tell you my name,” she announced. “Not while we’re on the wrong TARDIS, anyways.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Can’t you feel it? Just listen. What do you hear?”

The Doctor closed his eyes, and tried to listen, but he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be listening for, because there were no noises other than the faint whirring of the time rotor, and the noises that the two of them were making. He opened his eyes again, and was startled so see that she’d made her way much closer to him in just a few seconds without making any noise. “I don’t hear anything,” he told her.

She grinned, and the Doctor only felt confused. “Exactly.” Then she turned and kicked gently at the base of the console before turning back to the Doctor. “This daft old machine might be alive, but there’s no personality. I’ve only ever met one TARDIS that was perfect for me, and I’m not going to tell you my name until we’re both standing on it.” 

Even though he was frustrated by how much confusion he was feeling, the Doctor couldn’t help grinning at her in return. “Well, I must have something to call you by, if I’m giving you a trip to Racksa… wherever it is that you wanted to go.”

She giggled at his failed attempt to pronounce it. “Raxacoricofallapatorius. And I don’t actually want to go there. It’s not that great of a place. Consider it an inside joke with an old friend. And you’re right, you do need something to call me.” She tilted her head to the side as she thought about it. “Call me… Wolf.”

From the look on her face, he could tell that even if it wasn’t her given name, it held some importance to her, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to get any answers from her even if she asked. She seemed pretty intent on being enigmatic. “Alright then, Wolf. Where to? Forwards? Backwards? Somewhere close? Somewhere galaxies away?”

She pretended to think about it for a moment, but the Doctor somehow knew that she’d already had a destination in mind the moment she’d showed up at the TARDIS yard and tried to charm the desk guy. “How about… Earth, er Sol 3, 21st century? Specifically London, England.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. “I hate to have to ask this, but are you just using me?” 

Wolf’s grin was practically blinding, and the Doctor wondered how it was even possible for someone to have such a beautiful smile? “Why Doctor, I can’t believe you’d ask me such a thing. That really hurts.” She reached up to put her hand over her left heart. “I can’t believe you’d even have to ask. Of course I’m using you.” She moved closer to him, and reached up to pat his chest right in the center. “Would you really want it any other way?”

The Doctor didn’t know quite how to react, and hoped that Wolf wouldn’t be able to feel just how quickly his hearts were beating. He reluctantly moved towards the console, though he felt like a hot brand had been left behind on his chest in the shape of Wolf’s hand. “London it is, then.” She didn’t offer him anything more specific than just London, so he didn’t ask. Once they’d landed, they both stepped outside of the TARDIS and glanced around. “So where are you headed from here, if you don’t mind me asking?” There was a moment of silence as Wolf looked at the outside of the TARDIS. The camouflage system had made it look like the outside of a small closed down shop. He didn’t miss the look of disappointment that flashed through her eyes before she turned to look at him again. 

She reached out to grab his hand and then started walking without mentioning it, and the Doctor was shocked to find just how well their hands fit together. “Can you smell that, Doctor? Without even meaning to you’ve landed right near one of my favorite chippies.”

The Doctor wanted to boast about his excellent driving skills, but instead came to a sudden halt, pulling his hand away from Wolf’s. She turned to look at him, one eyebrow arched high. “You’ve been here before,” he said flatly. “So- what? You traveled around with some other Time Lord but they left you behind on Gallifrey and now you want the old reunion tour? Is that it?”

Her smile dimmed, and even though the Doctor was annoyed, he couldn’t deny that he was disappointed to see her grin lose even a small amount of its brilliance. “Doctor, I know you have no reason to, but please trust me when I say that there is no one in the universe who I would rather travel with than you.” She reached out to grab his hand, and pressed it against her chest before he could protest. He realized a moment later what she was trying to show him. She only had one heart. Not Gallifreyan, then. “I know that you must be confused right now. You always hate it when you don’t know everything about a situation. It must be worse for you now, when you have so little experience with the universe.” She hesitated for a moment, and then let go of his hand so that he could pull away. “You’re too young for me, Doctor, at least right now. That’s why I needed you to bring me here and now, so that I can find a Doctor further down your personal timeline.”

“So you know me in the future? Then how did you end up on Gallifrey in my time? And why would I be traveling around with a human?”

Wolf giggled. “It’s strange to hear that from you of all people. You’ve traveled with many, many humans. Or you will.” Then her grin faded away, and she suddenly took a step back from him, eyes looking down at the floor instead of up at him. “As for how I ended up on Gallifrey, I think it’s probably best that I don’t tell you. I mean, I know you’re going to have to forget all of this anyways, since you didn’t know me when I first met you, but even still.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry that I can’t give you more answers, but I did learn about all this time travel stuff from the best.”

The Doctor still found it difficult to believe that he would ever travel around with a human, though he supposed that if he was going to do that, it made sense that it would be Wolf. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was about her, but something about her just seemed to attract his attention. He glanced at her as they continued walking again, and found that he was irrationally disappointed that she didn’t try to hold his hand again. “You didn’t give me an exact date or coordinates, so how do you know that you’ll find a future me here?”

She shrugged. “I guess I don’t know for sure, but it seems like the best place to start looking. We’ve been back here quite a few times before to visit my mum.” The Doctor wrinkled his nose and wanted to protest about how he would never do something so domestic, but she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him. “I know that the odds of me finding the most current you in my timeline here are slim, but any future you that already knows me should be able to get me to where I need to go.”

“I could find your future Doctor myself,” he felt the need to point out. If no matter what he was going to be getting a brief glimpse of his future, then why couldn’t this version of himself be the one to look?

Wolf glanced back at him thoughtfully, and then she shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You have a lot of years between now and when I met you, and there’s way too many spoilers in that.”

He narrowed his eyes. “But you’re the one who said that I’ll have to forget all of this anyways.”

Wolf sighed, and then she did reach back to take his hand again, slowing down her pace. “You’ll just have to trust me on this. I know that that’s hard for you, but just this once, please believe that I know more about the situation than you do.”

The Doctor frowned, but didn’t pull his hand free. “Who are you, really? And why should I trust you when I don’t know anything about you. I don’t even know your name.”

She shrugged. “You trusted me enough to run off with me in a stolen TARDIS, didn’t you?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but didn’t have any good defense for that. He really had just run off with a complete stranger, broken so many rules, and had just now offered to seek out a future version of himself, which was a bit of a taboo thing to do among Time Lords. What was wrong with him?

As they got closer to the chippy, Wolf froze, and stared at the small queue standing around inside, visible through the large storefront windows. She let go of the Doctor’s hand, but he only tightened his grip to stop her from getting away. His eyes quickly scanned over all the customers, but he didn’t see himself. When she said a lot of years, he suddenly wondered how many she meant, exactly. “So you’re just going to run off and leave me to face all the trouble back home?”

“And you think bringing a human to Gallifrey would get you into any less trouble? Besides, you love trouble.”

“I certainly do not,” the Doctor grumbled. 

Wolf gave him that brilliant grin again. “Oh, but you do call me trouble so often in the future.” Before the Doctor could consider the full implications of that statement, Wolf stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Live a fantastic life, Doctor. You’ll see me again someday.” Then she gently tugged herself free and ran off.

The Doctor watched with wide eyes as Wolf burst into the small shop, and the customers glanced over at her before looking away disinterestedly. Except for one. A tall man with ridiculous hair, wearing a suit with trainers of all things. He continued to stare at Wolf, and got out of line to slowly walk over to her. He looked her up and down, and then asked something slowly enough that the Doctor couldn’t read his lips to understand it. He couldn’t see Wolf’s face, and had no idea what she said in return, but a stricken look appeared on the other man’s face, and then it softened into a mix of sadness and sympathy before he nodded once. He hesitated for a moment before pulling Wolf into a tight hug, and they remained like that for several very long seconds.

If that was the Doctor in the future, then it meant that he must have regenerated. Of course he knew that it was a possibility, thanks to the gift of the untempered schism, but to imagine that he’d ever be in a situation where he was close enough to dying that he would regenerate was quite upsetting. No wonder Wolf hadn’t wanted him to learn more about his future. 

He knew that he wasn’t needed anymore, at least not in this place and this time, so he turned to head back to the TARDIS. The urge for adventure had already passed, as though it had only been tied to the excitement of the moment as he was dragged along by Wolf. As he walked, he thought more about regeneration. Would he still be the same person? Would it hurt terribly? Did Wolf prefer that future face to his current one? But no, those were all useless thoughts.

As he stepped back into the TARDIS, it occurred to the Doctor that he should lock away his memories of the past couple of hours. Wolf had already said that he didn’t know her when they met, but… something deep inside of him said that if he didn’t remember today, then he would suffer for it in the future. As he stood inside the TARDIS, a curious thought hit him. How had Wolf been able to communicate with him and the desk guy so flawlessly on Gallifrey? Even if she’d traveled in a TARDIS, no Gallifreyan language would ever be translated by one, but now that he considered what it had sounded like when the other humans on the street had spoken, he just knew that it hadn’t been translation, but direct speech. Did he teach her the language? But why? Perhaps there was no point in thinking about impossible things, though. He would get no answers here anyways.

The Doctor heaved out a sigh, and then set the coordinates to return to just a few minutes after he’d taken the TARDIS. It was tempting to show up earlier to avoid getting in trouble at all, but each TARDIS had a unique temporal signature, and the desk guy would be able to tell that there were two of the same one in the yard. 

The Doctor didn’t bother to check the monitor before heading to the doors. But maybe he should have. As he stepped outside, he found that he was not in the TARDIS yard, or on Gallifrey at all. He hurried back inside and looked to see what the coordinates were. He was on Earth, though when he went to the doors to peer outside again, he wondered why it looked so… strange. Of course, he’d only been there once just a few minutes ago, and there were probably other places on the planet that had different looks about them, but he checked again and the coordinates said specifically that he was on a planet called Dradeean, 36th century.

He stepped back outside and looked up. There were three different moons visible in the sky, and they cast a pretty reflection onto the surface of a nearby lake. After a moment, the Doctor just shrugged. There was no reason he couldn’t take a quick tour of the place before going back. He did have a time machine, after all. He could head back to the TARDIS yard any time and still make sure that no time at all had passed. Sure, someone would probably check his flight logs, and would probably get him in even more trouble for taking a detour, but when he closed his eyes, he could picture Wolf’s dazzling grin and bright eyes, holding her hand out and pulling him into an adventure. Well, what harm could it do?

,,,

The Doctor grew up, slowly but surely. He had to, since there was nothing else for him to do. After that impromptu trip he’d taken as a child, (a trip that ended up lasting him almost ten years before he’d finally returned to face the music), he’d been indefinitely grounded. He’d thrown himself into scholarship at first, but eventually he reached a point where he just felt like he couldn’t learn any more without going out and seeing the universe for himself. An idea that was immediately vetoed by anyone and everyone with the power to do so.

When he was a little bit older, smarter but not wiser, he was given a match test, and was assigned a Time Lady who was deemed to be the most genetically compatible with him, and would therefore help him create the best progeny that they could. The Doctor wasn’t particularly interested in the domestics of a family, but he did his duty, and loomed two children. They both applied to and entered the Academy at eight years old, and the Doctor figured that that was the last he’d really need to take care of them. 

It was many years after that that he’d been invited to hold his infant granddaughter for the first time. Something about her was special, he could just tell, but had no idea how to put it into words. Her name was Arkytior, and for some reason, the name resonated deeply with the Doctor. He found himself spending more time with Arkytior than he had with his own children, even as his son abandoned Arkytior the same way the Doctor had abandoned his son. 

When she was old enough to apply to the Academy, both of her parents encouraged it, but she insisted that she didn’t want to go. The Doctor would not force her to. He thought back to his own Academy days, and when he had officially become a Time Lord. For the first time in a while, he thought of his dear old friend, who had been driven mad by Time. The Doctor didn’t want that for his granddaughter, so he volunteered to take on the responsibility for her education.

The first time Arkytior begged him to take her for a ride through time and space, the Doctor found that he still couldn’t say no to her. So they snuck into the TARDIS yard and looked around, the Doctor holding the girl’s hand tightly so that she wouldn’t wander off and get lost. As he walked up to a TARDIS, which looked the same as any other, he spotted a young lady standing leaned up against it. She gave him a small smile. “I wouldn’t take that one, if I were you.”

The Doctor frowned. “If you’re here to-”

“I’m not trying to get you in trouble, I promise.” Then she nodded over at one of the TARDIS’ that had a bright yellow sign hanging on the door that declared it unfit for use. “The last of the old model. Personally, I think there’s something unbeatable about the old classic.”

The Doctor was about to politely refuse, since he wasn’t going to endanger his granddaughter in an old, broken down machine, but Arkytior pulled him over to it. “Come on, Grandfather! No one will even care if this one goes missing!” 

The Doctor glanced back, but the other young woman was gone. He blinked a few times, and then followed the excited girl into the old ship. He felt a strange rush of warmth as he walked over to the console and set it to a random destination. “This old girl’s got personality,” he murmured. He wasn’t quite sure why that was important, since really it just meant that the thing was suffering some kind of malfunction, but even so it just felt right to him. 

They landed on Earth during the 20th century, and the TARDIS disguised itself as a wooden police box of all things. Then his granddaughter declared that she wanted to go by the English name of Susan. When he asked why, she said that it was because she’d decided that this was where she wanted to go to school. The Doctor assured her that he’d be able to teach her so much more than any old human school, but she insisted, so the Doctor agreed. 

He picked her up and dropped her off everyday, and then they would travel around all of time and space in their spare moments. It was a grand life, being able to watch all of history happen around them. Eventually they had to return to Gallifrey, if only so that the Doctor wouldn’t be accused of kidnapping Susan, but the chastisement he received wasn’t all that harsh, and he took off in his stolen ship again soon after. 

The first time the Doctor regenerated, he found himself looking in the mirror, and feeling something strange. He certainly wasn’t a ‘pretty boy’, though he wasn’t sure why he should care about such things. Looks had never mattered to him before, and Time Lords lived long enough lives that regenerating into an older looking person meant nothing bad for him. He was four-hundred and fifty years old, and he wasn’t sure if he was a different person or not. 

,,,

The Doctor was blonde and wore celery in his lapel when he saw someone that caused him to stop right in his tracks. A pretty young woman with warm brown eyes and blonde hair tied in two braids draped over her shoulders was standing behind one of the stalls at the bazaar on Helvden IV. His feet dragged him over to her before he could stop himself. 

He glanced down, and saw that there were no wares set out, and he looked up at her in confusion. “What are you selling?”

She assessed him to see if he looked like a potential customer, and then relaxed back, and then offered him a grin that felt breath-taking. “Human bits.” When he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, she elaborated. “Fifty yeln for a drop of blood, forty-six yeln for a strand of hair, three-hundred yeln for a tissue sample. Other bits to be negotiated case by case.” 

The Doctor just stared at her, and wondered why she wasn’t saying anything about their past. Unless… she hadn’t met him yet? It had been many many years since he’d last seen her. Maybe this was when they were supposed to meet? Maybe he saved her from selling physical pieces of herself and took her to travel the stars instead? But she’d said that he hadn’t known her when they met. Maybe he’d just pretended not to. “Why would anyone be paying so much for ‘human bits’?”

Wolf shrugged. “People are crazy, what can I say? And I think that there’s a few different chemical formulas that work well with human stuff. And it’s not like there’s a high population of humans around here, so I don’t have to worry about much competition. It’s a living, you know? So? You buying?”

The Doctor tried not to gag at the thought of buying human body parts, or what the ‘other bits’ might be. “Not exactly. I’m just browsing.” He held one hand out, as he knew was the human custom for greeting new people. “I’m the Doctor.”

The look on Wolf’s face immediately changed, and the Doctor knew that this wasn’t their first meeting. She just hadn’t recognized him. He was such an idiot- of course she hadn’t recognized him! He looked like a completely different person than he had in his first face. She shook his hand, and then dropped it quickly. “Well, it was nice to meet you, but I’d appreciate it if you leave so that there’s space for paying customers.”

The Doctor felt strangely hurt by the abrupt dismissal, until he realized that she had told him to forget about her, and probably assumed that he had. She thought that he thought she was just a stranger (which she still kinda was anyways, at least to him, at least for now, but whatever). “Well, I don’t have enough yelns on me, but maybe I could do you one better. How about a trip in a time machine, Wolf?” 

She gave him a very long look then, and he could practically see the gears in her mind whirring away. “Are you from the future? Or the past?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Isn’t that all relative when you’re a time traveler?”

Wolf laughed, though she immediately tried to hide it, and the Doctor wanted to ask her not to do that, because he quite enjoyed the sound of her laughter. “Surely you must know about all kinds of time travel rules, Doctor. You wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize your future, would you?”

He shrugged, and decided not to mention that he thought it might be worth it for her. She probably wouldn’t appreciate that, considering that they barely even knew each other. “What are you doing here?” he had to ask. “I thought that you found my future self, so why would he ditch you here?”

Wolf’s gaze sharpened. “Did I? So you are from my future, then. Just not far enough into it.”

The Doctor’s shoulders slumped down. “I’ve been doing this for so long, but all this time travel stuff still manages to confuse me. Hm. Maybe you need a lift to Gallifrey, then?” She must have ended up there somehow. If this is all some kind of loop, then he’d like to make sure that it gets properly completed.

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “No thanks. I don’t think it would be a good idea to hitch a ride from you of all places. Although… no. I shouldn’t go to Gallifrey.”

“Why not?”

Wolf sighed, and suddenly looked very tired. Her eyes seemed to show a far greater age than her face did, though the Doctor knew that she was only human, which meant that that was impossible. “It’s complicated. I just… I think that just hearing about it has to be enough.” The Doctor knew that there was no point in telling her that she’d end up there someday anyways. 

“Somewhere else, then. I can give you a ride to anywhere in time and space.”

Wolf shook her head. “You said that you thought I already met your future self, which means that you can’t bring me to meet him now. It’s alright. I have faith that it will all work out.”

The Doctor tilted his head. “How?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Because I believe in you,” she said casually, as though it was no big deal at all. “Anyways, you really should probably get out of the way. Paying customers and all that. Don’t worry though, Doctor. I don’t plan on staying here forever. For one thing, I might go bald if I did.” She suddenly leaned forward over the small wooden counter and pulled the Doctor into a hug, then she gave him a kiss on the cheek before settling back on her feet. “Let’s not cause any paradoxes, Doctor. I’m quite certain that you’re not supposed to have memories of me from before we met.”

The Doctor grinned mischievously. “It’ll be our little secret, hm?” Then he forced himself to hurry away before she could say anything else to him. He’d see her again, he assured himself. Wolf still hadn’t met him for the first time, which meant that they’d see each other again.

,,,

The Doctor was dressed like a character out of a Jane Austen book when he saw her again. She was sitting at a little bistro table, playing some weird looking version of chess with a petite brunette. It had been such a very long time since he’d last seen her, but he just couldn’t stop himself from walking up to their table and leaning over the board. “You’re about to lose your queen,” he pointed out.

Wolf’s head jerked up. “Excuse me?”

He straightened up, and offered her a friendly smile. “I’m the Doctor.” He didn’t have to wait long before recognition flashed across her face, and he knew that this wasn’t their first meeting either. “And who’s your friend?”

Wolf snorted. “I wouldn’t tell you my name to keep the timelines safe, but you think I’d tell you hers? And besides, I thought that you were supposed to forget about our previous encounters, Doctor. It would seem that you’ve been quite naughty.”

“You said ‘encounters’. Plural. So we’ve met more than once before we officially meet?” She just shrugged, giving him that wonderful grin, and he couldn’t help returning it. “So then I’m assuming that means that you won’t tell me if I were to ask whether you found the future me or not?”

The other woman leaned across the table to swat playfully at the blonde’s arm. “Honestly, you’re just as bad as- well. Put the poor man out of his bloody misery, why dontchya?”

Wolf shook her head. “Timelines. Kind of important, don’t you think? And besides, I wasn’t going to lose my queen. It’s all part of my strategy.” It was pretty obvious that she was just trying to change the subject, but the Doctor decided to let her. He pulled over a chair from an empty table and sat down to watch the game. She grinned at him. “Watch and learn, Doctor.” 

The game kept going for quite a while longer, and the Doctor didn’t understand much of it at all, though he knew who the winner was when the brunette threw her hands up in frustration, and Wolf just laughed. The brunette turned to look at the Doctor. “She’s impossible to beat, I swear. Her superpower must be the ability to always win board games.”

The blonde just kept laughing, though she stopped abruptly, and it took the Doctor a moment to realize that there was someone shouting nearby. “Rose! It would be great if you could bring me that accelerant right now! Rose!” 

Wolf seemed to be glued to her chair even as the Doctor leapt up to his feet. “Come on! If someone’s in trouble then we should…” he trailed off at the reluctant look on Wolf’s face, and it hit him just how little he actually knew about this woman. She was pretty and had a nice smile and would travel with him someday, and that was basically all that he knew about her. He had no idea what kind of a person she was. He didn’t think he’d travel with a person who’d leave others to face danger on their own, but he had no idea when they were supposed to meet.

Wolf slowly stood up, and glanced at her chess partner. “I suppose we’d better get to it, then.”

The brunette’s eyes flicked over to the Doctor for a moment before looking back at Wolf. “Are you sure-?”

Wolf nodded. “Yeah. What other choice do we have?” Then she turned to look at the Doctor. “This is all your fault, you know. You’re far too jeopardy friendly.” Then she grabbed his hand, and grinned at him. “Run!” She pulled him away from the bistro, shouting over her shoulder at the other woman. “Pick up the tab, will ya?” 

She dragged the Doctor into a nearby alley, where a goofy looking man was waving his arms around, and making hissing noises at something hovering around that seemed to be partially on fire. He didn’t even look at them. “Rose! Accelerant!” 

Wolf reached into her pocket and pulled out a metal can that definitely would not fit into it unless it was bigger on the inside, and tossed it over to the other guy. The man caught it easily, and then sprayed it at the thing, which made the fire grow bigger. The Doctor just stared. So her name was Rose, then. And the other man clearly knew her well, and she had bigger on the inside pockets, which meant that that had to be him. Though it wasn’t the same him that Wolf- that Rose- had seen in the chippy way back when. 

The fire continued for another few seconds before it seemed to disappear, and a small pile of black ashes rained down onto the ground. The man turned around, revealing his weirdly old man styled clothing choice (further proof that he was the Doctor- not many people managed to have the same terrible fashion taste as the Doctor did, though it always managed to be terrible in different ways with each new face). “What took you so long?” Then he spotted the Doctor, and frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Rose let go of the Doctor’s hand to walk over to the other one, holding his hand instead. “Be nice,” she told him in a faux stern voice. Was it ridiculous to be jealous of himself? Probably. Then she let go of the other one’s hand so that she could cross her arms over her chest. “Is there anything you want to tell me, mister? Any big secrets you’ve been holding on to for far too long?”

The other one scrunched up his face in thought, and then shook his head. “Nothing comes to mind, no.”

She narrowed her eyes. “So then it’s not supposed to be a secret that you risked our entire past and future by letting yourself remember every time that we met?” 

The other one frowned. “What are you talking about? Why would I forget that we…” then he trailed off as looked up at the younger Doctor again. “met,” he finished lamely. He looked at Rose with wide eyes. “We met before we met? How many times? Where? Why?”

Rose gave him a long look, but seemed satisfied that he was telling the truth, and then she turned back to the Doctor. “So you chose to remember, but you’ll forget anyways, and you won’t remember even after we meet? Every time I think that I might actually understand something, I get proven wrong. Anyways, you should probably go now. You’re not supposed to know too much about your future, remember?”

The Doctor frowned. “You’ve seen so many different faces of mine, but you still stay by my side? Who are you?”

Rose gave her current Doctor a small smirk before looking back at the younger one. “I’m the big bad wolf.” Then she pulled him into a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m still in your future, Doctor. You don’t need to rush to find me. I’ll be there, I promise.” 

As he walked away, he could hear his older self saying, “How many times, Rose? Why did you never say anything about it?”

“You’re the one who risked our timeline by remembering it for so long,” she reminded him, and the Doctor grinned at the thought of her chewing the older one out (even though he probably shouldn’t get so much pleasure from it, since it was still himself who was in trouble. He couldn’t wait to get in trouble someday).

,,,

The Doctor looked around the abandoned little shack, and thought that it was as fitting a place as any to set up the Moment that would end everything. He was startled when he turned around and saw Rose perched on top of the weapon like it was nothing more than a strangely shaped seat. “What are you doing here?”

She stood up and made her way over to him, a sad look on her face. “This is going to be one of the most awful days of your life, Doctor. Of course I’m going to be here for you through it.” She reached out to gently touch his cheek, but the Doctor pulled away. He didn’t deserve that gentle touch.

“You were wrong. I’m never going to meet you. All of that future was just a lie. There is no future. Not for Gallifrey, and not for me. I don’t know how you got here, but you need to leave. Now, Rose.”

“That’s technically the first time you’ve called me by my name,” she mused, as though it were something fascinating. Then she shook her head. “Doctor, I’m so sorry, but there are consequences to what you’re going to do. Consequences that mean that you will live. It is your punishment. I know that on today of all days it is no consolation, but we will meet again, I promise.”

The Doctor just couldn’t believe that. “How could I meet you again? With what I plan on doing, there’s no way that I could ever deserve to be as happy as I seem to be in the future with you. Just get out of here so that I can do what I have to do.” He gently pulled her away from the Moment, but she grabbed his wrist before he could touch the box. “What now?”

“It’s probably still too hot.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You were just sitting on it a moment ago.”

Rose gave him an apologetic look. “I’m not exactly an ordinary person. Not anymore. That thing right there is mine, or maybe I’m it’s. Either way, you won’t be able to use it or activate it without me. But in order to use that weapon, you’ll have to justify your reasons, to yourself and to me. I can give you something, just a small gift. A glimpse of what is to come. Maybe it will help, maybe it will hurt. But either way, I think you should at least look.”

When all was said and done, the Doctor stepped back into his TARDIS, feeling utterly amazed. He’d just changed his past- and his future. He looked over at Rose, who was leaning up against the console. “Why didn’t you want them to know that you were there?”

She gave him a sad smile. “When are you going to learn, Doctor? It’s always about the timey wimey stuff.” Then she walked over to him, and reached up to gently cup the sides of his face. “I’ve finally figured out why you didn’t know me when we met. Doctor, you can’t know me when we meet.”

He reached up to rest his hands on top of hers. “Why not? I would still bring you along with me in an instant,” he promised.

Rose smiled. “I know you would. And Doctor, I want more than anything to heal you of all your pain, though that’s a task that’s too impossible for even me to accomplish. But there’s more to it than that. When we meet for the first time, I’m just a nineteen year old shopgirl who’s lived a life where absolutely nothing ever happened. Being able to travel with you taught me a better way to live, a better way to exist. And it was so easy for me to fall in love with you, even if you continued to be too stubborn for your own good. But if that nineteen year old girl was faced with a man who recognized her and had such high expectations of her right from the start, it would scare her away. Every single moment that we’ve had together is absolutely precious to me. And you deserve to see it all for the first time. We both need to make mistakes and act like daft old fools, and- and have our hearts broken.”

The Doctor shook his head, even though he knew that Rose was right. “How can I know that I’ll miss you this much when I barely even know you? From the first moment I saw you, I knew that you were someone important. Someone worth knowing. But even after bumping into you so many times, I hardly know anything about you at all.”

“You will,” she said in a voice so full of confidence that it felt impossible to argue with her. “When the time is right, you’ll find me for the first time again, and everything will be absolutely perfect.” Then she stood on her tiptoes, though this time instead of kissing his cheek, she pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth.

The Doctor blinked a few times as he felt himself starting to regenerate, and he looked around the TARDIS in confusion. Where had he just been? What had just happened? And why did it feel like his lips were tingling strangely? 

,,,

The Doctor saw someone in trouble and grabbed their hand, telling them to run and pulling them along. It wasn’t until they were in the relative peace and safety of the elevator that he stopped to look, and wondered why the young blonde felt so familiar to him, even though he knew that he’d never seen her before. 

He ended up breaking his own rules by asking her twice, but what else was he supposed to do when he felt such a strong draw to her? 

,,,

On one of their many trips back to London, Rose sent the Doctor out to get some fish and chips for them all while she caught up with her mother. The Doctor was happy for any excuse to spend less time with Jackie. He was pretty sure that he was going to be able to feel the sting of her slaps until the end of eternity, and did not want to tempt her into giving him any more.

As he waited in line, the shop door slammed open with more force than necessary, and he found himself glancing over, along with everyone else in line. When he saw Rose standing there, he was about to crack a joke about how she must have been so impatient to see him again so soon, but then he realized that there was something different about her.

She was thinner than she had been when he’d seen her half an hour ago, and her hair was much shorter. She was dressed in a purple leather jacket that he’d never seen on her before, and her usual overabundance of makeup was nowhere to be found. The Doctor slowly walked over to her, not caring about losing his place in the line. “Rose? Are you…” he spoke slowly to try and organize his thoughts, but still couldn’t think of anything to say. 

“I’m from your future. And I’m a bit stranded right now, trying to find the you that matches up with my timeline. Think you can give me a lift?”

She sounded more serious than Rose usually did, but he knew instinctively that it was still his Rose, and that she was telling him the truth. He wondered what could have happened for her to be left behind, and felt his hearts clench in his chest. He hesitated for a moment, then pulled Rose into a hug. She looked like she could really use one. 

The Doctor used the TARDIS to help calculate where he’d be able to find a more current version of him, and then landed the ship. He gestured to the doors, but knew that he couldn’t go out there, because he didn’t want to see his future self. He might slap him if he did, for leaving Rose behind. “Thank you, Doctor. Really.” She suddenly yanked him down to give him a kiss, and then he pulled back, staring at her with wide eyes. “I think you already know that you’re going to have to forget about this.” Then she hurried off, and the Doctor just stood there, dazed, until he finally got himself together enough to return to Earth and lock away the memory, as much as he didn’t want to. He was quite confused when he wandered back to the Powell Estate with no fish or chips in sight, but the horror of being faced with Jackie’s cooking was enough to make him forget about the strangeness of it all.

,,,

When the Doctor lost Rose at Canary Wharf, he felt like his life may as well be over. What was the point in living in a universe that didn’t have Rose Tyler in it? He burned up a sun to say goodbye to her, but even as her image faded away, her confession rang in his ears, and made him feel like he’d been punched in the gut. Why had he never told her sooner? He’d been such a fool, so afraid of losing her, but now he had lost her, and he’d never get the chance to say the words that were constantly rattling around in his hearts. 

,,,

The Doctor was stuck in an unknown desert with a broken down bus, and a group of mostly incompetant humans. As they all sat around, trying to think of a plan, Carmen walked up to the Doctor and cleared her throat. “Don’t lose hope, Doctor,” she told him quietly. “She’s coming back. Just be patient.”

The Doctor would have asked what she was talking about, but then decided that maybe he didn’t want to know. So he jumped to his feet and started issuing instructions. He was going to do everything in his power to get these people home safely. And he just knew that all of them were going to live brilliant lives.

Eventually they’d gotten things figured out, and were just gearing up to leave so that they could escape the swarm, when Carmen shouted, “Doctor, wait! She’s right there!”

There was no time to wait, but then he heard a beautiful voice that he thought he’d never hear again. “Doctor!” It sounded just like when she’d fallen towards the void, and the Doctor couldn’t force himself to leave, even though it was probably just some kind of hallucination caused by dehydration or something. 

But he poked his head out the window, and saw her running, and doing pretty well considering that she was running over sand, clutching a purple leather jacket in her hands. She was panting for breath, and she seemed to be glistening from sweat, and there were small scrapes across her visible skin, and her hair was a wild mess, and she was the most beautiful sight the Doctor had ever seen. 

He opened the door to let her on board, and then slammed down on the gas, getting everyone home safely just in the nick of time, with the back of the bus partially eaten away before the rift closed and he was able to make an emergency landing. As soon as he was sure that they were stable, he jumped up and pulled Rose into a tight hug, pressing his face into the top of her head. “Rose…” She still seemed to be out of breath, so he forced himself to loosen his grip so that he wouldn’t crush her to death when he’d just gotten her back. “How?”

Rose took in a few more deep breaths before she was able to answer. “Blame your own shite driving. You could have landed me much closer to the bus instead of just stranding me in the middle of the desert.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rose laughed, and the Doctor thought that if this was all just some elaborate dream, then he never wanted to wake up again. “You’ll find out some day. Or you already have. Hard to say for sure. But the important thing is that I’m here. And I did come back for a reason, because I need your help with something, but more important,” she grabbed his jacket to yank him down into a kiss, and it felt like one of the most perfect moments in the Doctor’s entire life. “You didn’t think you’d be getting rid of me that easily, did you, Doctor?”

,,,

So many adventures, and new friends, and Rose told him that the stars had been going out across every universe, but he promised her that he’d already taken care of that problem with help from many old friends. Rose stayed with him through everything, even when he changed faces again, and when they kept encountering a woman who claimed to be his wife (who’d known his name when he’d met her the first time). 

One day Rose asked for a short trip back to the Estate. They both knew that it was too risky to go back there at a time when Jackie would still be around, but he could tell that Rose needed the break, so the Doctor agreed. He planned on staying the day with her as she moved about in her old home, looking through Jackie’s things and boxing up everything that she planned to keep, but she quickly dismissed him, laughing and saying that he would probably explode if he had to do something so domestic. He assured her that he could if it was for her, but she gave him a kiss and then sent him on his way.

Bored (and worried, though he didn’t want to admit it), the Doctor decided to take Clara out for a spin. He hadn’t seen her in a while. He certainly wasn’t expecting to get TARDIS-napped while with her, or to find out that it involved Elizabeth I. He was still curious about why she’d hated him so much back when she’d seen him after meeting Shakespeare. 

He saw his previous self, and they were both surprised when their most hated self appeared before them. When all was said and done, Gallifrey had been saved, and the Doctor felt as though his very soul had been saved as well. 

Both of his younger selves left, and then the Doctor turned to look at the painting on the wall. It still looked the same as before, though he couldn’t help wondering if there were any details somewhere in the 3D space of it that had been changed for the better. As he inspected it, he heard a soft voice from behind him. “Don’t ever going into the curating business. I don’t think you’d be able to stand all the stuffiness of a job like that.”

The Doctor turned around with a grin. “Rose! What are you doing here? Did you take care of everything at the Estate?” Then he frowned as he realized that she wasn’t wearing any of her usual outfits, and was instead dressed in threadbare, torn up leggings and dress that he’d never seen before. “Rose…?” Her eyes flashed gold for a moment as she walked closer to the Doctor, and his own eyes widened in shock. “Bad Wolf,” he murmured. He had no idea how this was possible, because he’d taken all of the vortex out of Rose, but he couldn’t deny what was right in front of him. 

“It’s still just me, love,” she said quietly. “I just came here to tell you the name of the painting. _Gallifrey_-”

“-_Falls_, I know,” he interrupted impatiently. “What’s going on?”

Rose gave him a knowing look. “_Gallifrey Falls No More_, I believe you’ll find is the complete title.”

As the words fell from her lips, memories were suddenly unlocked in the Doctor’s mind. It explained the strangeness of when she’d accused him of remembering her when they’d encountered his eighth self. He had encountered her, and had insisted on remembering up until the moment that she hadn’t let him anymore. He remembered everything, and he gasped as all the memories clicked into place in his mind. “Rose-”

“You had me at ‘run’,” she told him, a teasing gleam in her eyes. “Isn’t it only fair that I got the same? Now run home to your wife, Doctor. The only time the universe is at rights is when the two of you are together.”

The Doctor hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward to give Rose a kiss on the cheek. “So many times you promised me that I’d get my happy ending. Well, I don’t know where exactly you are in your timeline, and I’m sure you won’t tell me, but I promise that you get yours too.” Then he hurried back onto the TARDIS. He hugged Clara when he spotted her standing by the console, and then set the coordinates to pick up Rose. He burst into the home, and saw Rose sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by taped up boxes and various miscellaneous things. “Rose!” He pulled her up to her feet and hugged her. 

She leaned back to give him a bemused look. “Any fun adventures today without me?”

“Oh but Rose, you were there. You’ve always been there for me you brilliant, clever, beautiful, wonderful woman.” He gave her a long kiss and didn’t pull back until they were both breathless from it. 

Rose’s eyes flicked over to Clara, who was standing awkwardly in the doorway, and then back to the Doctor. “Oh. Oh! Gallifrey?” 

The Doctor nodded, and hugged her again. “Thank you so much, Rose. Thank you for everything.”

Rose laughed. “So is this the part where we all live happily ever after?”

There was nothing in that moment that could have taken away the Doctor’s grin. “Oh, but we’ve been doing that all along, haven’t we?”

Rose nodded. “Yeah, I suppose we have. Like our own little fairy tale, huh?”

“You are the most beautiful knight in shining armor that a Time Lord could ever ask for,” the Doctor told her in all seriousness. “Thank you, Rose Tyler.”

She let him pull her back into their hug. “Oh, the pleasure was all mine. Thank you, Doctor. For letting me be there.”

They both separated and laughed when Clara made fake gagging noises. “I’m just going to go back to the TARDIS if you two are going to act all lovey-dovey. I thought that phase was already over?”

The Doctor looked at Rose with stars in his eyes. “Oh, I don’t think that that part is ever going to end.”

Rose reached out to take both of his hands. “No, it won’t.” From the beginning of the Doctor's life, he'd been frightened enough to believe that he would spend the entire rest of his life running. But he was so happy to realize that he'd finally found a reason to stop running away. Instead, he had someone to run to, and that was just the best feeling in the world.


End file.
